Borders

This Borders is closing as well. And it’s a big space to fill within the often struggling Downtown Pleasant Hill. If you have an unused Borders gift card lying around, now’s the time.

I have 30 minutes to burn after enjoying a nice dinner at Jacks and the time the movie across the street starts — It’s 6:50pm on a Sunday — closing time is 7. I walk-​in knowing that they are closing in 10 minutes. I’m a difficult reader as in, a book REALLY has to capture me in the first 10 pages for me to want to read it. My friend was looking for a particular book for me when a lady that worked in the store proceeded to walk by and say to me «We are closing, you need to buy your book or leave».
Now it may have been 7pm by this time and yes, I could see there was a line with about 15 people in it making their purchases, at which time if I wanted to spend a minute or two before having to wait in that line to find the right book and buy it I had time.
I was more put off by the attitude that this stores representitive had. This borders has lost a customer for life. If I have to buy a book I will buy it somewhere else in the world but not borders.
As I walked out with my friend I did ask if the lady at the front was the manager — and she was — she was very nice and offered me a free coffee and asked that I call her about the situation later. She knows who her associate is that she obviously need to re-​train or give and attitude adjustment to. I, however, have NO interest in needing to speak with the manager further as she now can handle it however she feels. I just wont be shopping at this location nor any other borders book stores.

Of all of the bookstores I have ever been to, this one is the busiest. If you are looking to buy a book that just came out, go somewhere else because everyone goes here. I like their free internet and their nice calm music. Their staff are friendly and do care about your needs. It is close to 3 schools and I’m glad that they kick the hooligans out when they get too loud. I just hate when sometimes they host a «knitting circle» or «Book club» and the old ladies are loud as H-​E– double hockey sticks! It’s always easy to find what i’m looking for with their customer friendly and OPEN computers because i hate going other places and having to wait in customer service for someone else to look up something and say they don’t have it when i know darn well that they do. Cough* Cough* Barnes and Nobles

How have I not wrote a review for this location is beyond me. I usually browse the Newsstand but more frequently grab a Coffee at their Seattle’s Best Café. The workers are usually friendly and are very helpful. Same go for the Cashiers at the Cash Wrap. The Coffee shop is where I primarily go to to get a quick Caffeine fix. There are always snacks and they also offer Teas and Chai options. They have Membership cards for extra discounts where you can print On-​line coupons. Good place and great Coffee is why I always go back. Now, all I have to do is figure out why everyone in the Café always stare at people when they walk in.

I stopped in a couple weeks ago to check out the card selection. I was already running into Paul Mitchel to pick up some hair product, otherwise I would have gone straight to the Hallmark store nearby. (
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The card section looked a bit like someone ran through flailing their arms about but they did have some nice, unique options and I picked up a few birthday cards for work.
I stopped in again today to grab a snack before a hair appointment. Seattle’s Best is the coffee shop in this Borders. They have a decent selection of cookies, muffins, pastries, etc. I opted for a wheat pretzel and a bottled tazo green tea. The pretzel was okay. It served its purpose but I won’t be rushing back anytime soon.

Dear Seattle’s Best,
Your coffee sucks. I attempted to get a medium coffee with an Add shot and the coffee was watered down. I couldn’t even taste the caffeine. & Why, did you take like 5 minutes to greet me when there were no other customers? WHACK. good try on the WI FI though, at least your books don’t suck. I know why, because you’re seattle’s best, not borders.

I LOVE BORDERS!!! Just not this one.
I understand that they’re located in Pleasant Hill and that the majority of the clientele is ‘melanin-​deficient’ but could we please get a few more items on the ‘African-​American’ fiction section? Please? And not the most embarrassing titles: ‘Thugs Need Love Too’, ‘My Woman, His Wife’ and of course ‘Big Spankable Asses’ (yes, that’s a real title, google it). I went to college in the area, work in the area now and shop in the area. I prefer to spend my money at Borders especially since their rewards card is free (eat it Barnes and Noble!) and they offer a bunch of coupons pretty regularly and would really like to see a more diverse selection of material. I could easily just head over to Emeryville but that’s a little out of the way.
Kudos to them for offering free shipping to your door if they don’t have what you want in stock. However, books are my addiction. I want what I want immediately; not in 3 – 8 days.

Went here yesterday to pick up a book.
What I like:
–still have decent discounts on bestsellers
–they manage to lure me back with free store/​online coupons
Why no fifth star:
–ELIMINATE their CD and DVD inventory, major negative!
–very selective in what they put in their displays. I went to pick up Agassi’s new book, and it was on the bottom shelf in a hidden corner in the store. For a new book with lots of sports hype, to see only 3 copies with no fanfare is a letdown.
–service is sometimes IFFY; their kiosks show a book as «likely in store.» Can’t they integrate it with their inventory and have a simple yes/​no?
Personally, I prefer the Borders in the city, and favorite is still the one in Seattle. There was a time when Borders had hard-​2-​find books, CDs, and a HUGE newspaper/​magazine section. Now, it’s there with just some of the other chains. Probably will stick with Amazon for books with low/​free shipping!

Im reviewing the Seattle’s Best Coffee Café which is part of Borders.
I had the Best Peach-​Raspberry Cobbler Cake and a fruity drink. Completely Delicious and I had very good service there too.

OK, here’s the deal about this store. I would prefer not to go here. It’s a big monster chain, they have big corporate meetings where they decide which books/​authors to sell and which not to give a chance, and their romance section is two times the size of their literature section. On top of all that, the remodel is never-​ending and so if you go in looking for, say, a memoir written about a peace-​corp experience in Kenya, it could be in Literature, or it could be in African History (do they even know Africa is a continent, not a country?), but one place it definitely will NOT be is non-​fiction, because that area is reserved for biographies and travel.
Also working against them is that they no longer special order any books they don’t have. What is that about? «No, we don’t carry it,» they told me just this week, «and no, don’t even ask, we won’t order it either.» So now my choices are to order it from that homo-​hating corporate giant Amazon or drive forty minutes to Moe’s in Berkeley (which is what I did) to buy it there.
And yet, I continue to go here. At least once a week, I find myself standing in the literature section at 10:00 at night, balancing precariously atop one of their cute footstools while I search for yet another author they do not carry. Why do I keep coming here? One, because they keep sending me these awesome coupons. This week it’s «save 20% off your entire order.» Last week it was 40% off one book. And two, because there are zero independent bookstores in the entire Walnut Creek/​Pleasant Hill/​Concord area. Zero. So what’s a girl to do?
So if you find yourself in the area, and you need a book, and obviously can’t go to the library because the one is still «under construction» and the other runs on very limited hours, then go to this Border’s. But not unless you have one of these coupons (you don’t even need to print it out if you have a smart phone – they’re happy to look at the barcode off your phone screen), and only if you are hoping for something pretty mainstream.

I’m not a big fan of Borders as a chain, they seem to only carry the «top 20» books, but this location is especially bad. They always lure me in with a coupon that is only good in store but they never have any of the books I’m looking for.
The gardening section SUCKS ASS! and there is no signage directing you too it, and it’s tucked way back in the corner and occupies about two shelves which were mostly empty the last time I visited. Obviously this store does not care about their gardening customers.

My ass is getting fat so I wanted to get some work out DVD’s that can be bought only at Borders or On line.
I came here and their entire DVD sections is gone and there were signs indicating «Thank you for being patient during the remodel» Where have the DVD’s been remodeled to? I sure as hell didn’t see any.
I went home and ordered them on line.

I’m a total bookworm and my daughter is one too, yet while I’m drawn to the fiction section, she heads straight for the manga section. I grew up going to Borders in Hawaii, since it was the only bookstore to where I lived. And I like coming here, despite the fact I love going to anywhere with books. The minus one star goes to their need of more sitting throughout the area. Yes, I’m one of those people who must read at least the first chapter of a book to see if its worth me buying or at least checking it out at my local library; we are in a recession dontchayouknow.

I enjoy this Borders a lot, and we come in here to browse. Pretty good selection of random magazines — want one on KNITTING? got it. how about horses? got it. what about bead jewelry? got it. hmmm, computers? too easy. working out? for both men and women, got it… even one — JUST for working out abs! seriously? if i have some time to kill, I’ll wander around in the magazine section and browse or I’ll look at the cookbooks and drool. Very nice bargain book section, too.

This is one is mildly upsetting to me. I use to go to the 1^st Borders Book Store in Ann Arbor as a child. My dad would gather us 4 kids up and tell us to go find something good to read. We would wander about for a couple hours and then meet back up at the cash register with a handful of books. Borders had used and new books (as I recall.)
My Borders had no coffee lattes, no DVDs, no music and no snooty better than you wanna-​a-​be librarians working there. My Borders had college town people who loved to answer your questions and point you in the direction of two other books you might like in the same genre. My Borders didn’t dedicate 10 front rows for drivel writing brain dead liberal progressive Stephen King, Anne Rice, and John Grisham. My Borders stocked hard to get and important books.
Now I have
and I order 90% of my books there. It has to be a rare occasion for me to stop into Borders to buy anything. When I do I’m overwhelmed by sadness. The yet another liberal progressive company sold-​out to their big multi-​national (yes they are) corporate greedy profit interests instead serving the communities that host them with wholesome literary works.
Parking at this location sucks.

I come here for books/​movies when I can’t find them at B&N. They have a good selection and most often times have pleasant people working for them.
I dislike that they usually have a line for checkout, they are more expensive than any other bookstore around and my mother hates that they don’t take starbucks cards or borders cards or whatever it was.
The fact that they have what I want is their only saving grace, as thats the only time I’m willing to pay that kinda of money for it.

Funny, many of the times I visit this Borders is when I have to go to the bathroom. It always seems to be right there when I need it, somewhat close to the door past the magazines and down the hall. Theres almost never anyone in there and its always clean.
As far as the store goes its just like any other Borders… boring. Not that bad, theres a nice area outside to sit and enjoy life. I love the big chairs inside but I always feel like theres a lot of nosey people here, trying to check you out or talk to you… not my thing!

I have an issue with a bookstore that have their employees tell people to basically beat it, people who have nooooo place to sit other than the aisles of the store. I mean, I understand if there’s like 20 people strewn all over the floors and blocking everything. But there was only my cuz and I in a remote corner with no one around (we usually sit by the homo-​erotic section (haha)… she’s just bringing herself up to her Fruits Basket storyline, and I… just trying to decide which of the 10 books I pulled I want to buy.
Damn it… there’s only 4 chairs in this freaking place and a bench way in the boonies nearby the kid’s area. At least there’s a stairstep reading area for the kids that we took over, but JESUS, if you want us to buy and peruse through the place, don’t sic your employees on us to constantly harass everyone to keep on moving. It only makes me want to buy from Amazon just so I can stick it up yer &#@).
About the only reason why we ever come here is just to kill time reading mangas. But I’ll only shop at the Borders Union just cause it’s pretty got everything I want in stock.

This particular location of Borders is typically empty, save for the masses crammed in the café area reading books without ordering anything.
What’s wrong with this picture? Well, Borders staff at this location should invest in more chairs and tables and place them across the store so that those of us who wish to actually purchase not only a book and/​or magazines but also an espresso drink can find seating in the café.
I wouldn’t mention it, except it’s happened to me three times, so it’s not me… it’s them.
Others have also mentioned this already, but the selection is surprisingly pathetic, especially when one compares to other Borders in the Bay Area (Emeryville, SF Downtown, just to name two…)

One of the reviewers criticized the entrance to the Borders for not encouraging pedestrians. The Borders is in a strip mall in a suburb. The only pedestrians are those who parked in the parking lot and are walking from chain store to chain store.
This isn’t going to have the selection of Cody’s, but then again, most of the patrons here are probably just looking for best-​sellers, or just looking while waiting for the next show at the AMC across the street.
This Borders does offer discounts to local teachers, which is probably more useful to the local population.
If I was grading on a curve, I’d give it four stars, but no one would confuse this Borders for a great bookstore. The thing is, 90% of the people in this Borders don’t need a great bookstore.